SOOZE -Adults only Marathon Weekend 3/1 New PTR link is here!

[Sooze]

Well, I think I'm to the point where I can't remember details. I didn't keep a journal because I intended to finish this while still on vacation....

Here are some shots from our delicious, FILLING meal at O'hana that night:
Appetizer-Potstickers....ymmmmmmmm!

The dipping sauces. Love the peanut one (farthest back in the picture)

Our cousin, delivering the goods

The goods, partially eaten! Can you say, "Carnivore's DREAM!?!"

Matt is enjoying this a bit too much!

Here we are on the monorail, feeling the pain of gluttony!

But then, GLEE!!!

WHY?

Because we had the whole monorail car to ourselves!! All the around to the TTC!

A few monorail pictures for you all

And off to Epcot for another evening of Illuminations!

This ended another great day. We had an early wake up call for the "Undiscovered Future World" tour. Hope you come back for some fun stuff we learned!!

 

[PrincessV]

Okay, I'm booking a return visit to Ohana for June. I've been there 3 times... and have yet to try ANY of the dipping sauces! I'm always so busy trying to keep track of my kid and what food is coming, I just cram whatever into my face sans dips. THIS time, I want to try the sauce, darnit!

 

[Sooze]

Okay, I'm booking a return visit to Ohana for June. I've been there 3 times... and have yet to try ANY of the dipping sauces! I'm always so busy trying to keep track of my kid and what food is coming, I just cram whatever into my face sans dips. THIS time, I want to try the sauce, darnit!

The dipping sauces MAKE THE MEAL! You gotta get to 'em this time! We already have ressies to go back at Spring Break. The food is to die for, seriously!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

 

[Sooze]

We were up early this morning, wanting to be on time for our first Disney Tour EVER!!

We enjoyed a quiet walk through International Gateway. They had lists for Akershus guests and Segway tour participants, but not Undiscovered Future World tour folks... oh well, they let us in anyway!!

We checked in at guest relations and got our handy headphones. Those things are amazing! Our tour guide could just walk and talk and we could hear everything he said. Very cool! There were about 12 people in our group. Unfortunately, they were mostly DUDS. Nice folks, just quiet and not fun. I wanted to be goofy, but didn't feel comfortable. Guess I'll just walk around and learn stuff.

I didn't take pictures. 1. I wanted to listen 2. I have lots of pictures of Epcot 3. The really cool places we went didn't allow pictures!!

The tour was 4 hours long... felt like 30 minutes. I was just enthralled with our CM and his knowledge of all things behind-the-scenes! Here he is with Matt and me at the end of the tour:

And here are a few highlights:

*Did you know that Disneyland was built in 11 months? When it opened, the asphalt was still not completely set and the ladies' high-heeled shoes left imprints in the ground. There are still sections of asphalt in DL today that have these marks! (What that has to do with Future World, I have no idea... but I love the story!)

*They really do wash the 3D glasses! We saw a poor CM sending them through the big ol' machine.

*"Backstage" at WDW is really not pretty! The magic certainly stops at the "Cast Members Only" sign!

*We went to the CM building and saw the COSTUME room! It's AMAZING! rows and rows of CM costumes, hats, belts, lederhosen, you name it! They explained the process of how CMs sign out and return costumes. This is also the building all CMs report to and walk through on their way to work at Epcot. It's the closest thing they could get to Walt's vision of Epcot being a community where people live and work.

*We got to go in a back door at Soarin' and ride front and center with no wait. Oh yea! One of the highlights for sure!

*We saw the Illuminations floats up close. It really is BIG! We learned that Illuminations has three 'movements'. The first is 'chaos', the last is 'meaning' and we can't remember the middle... oops!

*A lot of the stuff we heard about is in the "Imagineers Guide to Epcot" that you can buy at most stores on Disney property!

I highly recommend the tour, it's very reasonable! We hope to do more tours in the future!!

We were absolutely STARVING after the tour and headed to the Electric Umbrella!! We were actually able to score our normal seating area:

Love to eat and look at our favorite store!

And our yummy Electric Umbrella food:

We went back to SSR to rest for a bit then headed to DTD. We decided to take a cruise down the Sassagoula... boy, it's a MUCH shorter trip than from POR!! Here are some shots from the boat:

DTD was uneventful! We shopped for the wonderful people back home that were taking care of our children for us! Found some ADORABLE purses for my sister and me... I'll have to take a picture and post it.. they were also ON SALE (which is the second time in a row that I've found purses on sale at WDW ) I also found these little lime green DIS beauties:

We spent quite a lot of time at the World of Disney. Shopping without children is really a relaxing experience. If you haven't done so, I highly recommend it!

Next stop.. Magic Kingdom!! Lots of fun pictures... won't you please come back!?

 

[Sooze]

Funny quick story... I have a girl in my class who's initials are MK... I can't help but think of Magic Kingdom whenever I see her!!

So we were done shopping and decided to head over to MK for the evening. Just thought I would post the pictures of our adventures!

The highlight of the evening was riding in my Indy car (haven't done those in AGES) and as I was rounding the corner where the castle comes into view, Wishes started! It was beautiful!

Enjoy the slide show:

Lots of crowds, as usual!

Lovin' the castle:

This is one ride I like better at DisneyLand...but still love to see Captain Jack!!

Did some time sitting outside of here, relaxing, eating, people watching:

My view:

More night pictures:

[

Window Displays:

We battled it out in Buzz Lightyear:

And I dominated!! (Thanks, V, for the volcano tip)
(Sorry, the picture isn't very good, but Matt was trying to push the camera around so I couldn't document his defeat!!)

A quick shot at the race car loading area:

On our way over to Philharmagic, we walked under the Wishes fireworks! It was beautiful... the music was loud.. I might try to watch Wishes from behind the castle next time (near Pooh's ride).

Philharmagic fun:

We had a magical night! One more morning at Epcot, then off to the airport. Hoping to close this out sometime this week so I can get going on Spring Break!! Thanks again for anyone still with me!!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Love the updates! I would have been goofy with you on the tour!

 

[timandlesley]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the update! What an awesome tour. I always say I want to work at Disney but wonder if it would loose the magic, especially after your comment.
What a great day of shopping and MK you had too! Love the silly glasses pics. Can't wait for the end. Enjoying your TR as always!!!
Lesley

 

[Sooze]

Love the updates! I would have been goofy with you on the tour!

Sure wish you were there, then! It would've been fun to have a Diser with me!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the update! What an awesome tour. I always say I want to work at Disney but wonder if it would loose the magic, especially after your comment.
What a great day of shopping and MK you had too! Love the silly glasses pics. Can't wait for the end. Enjoying your TR as always!!!
Lesley

It's VERY true! Seriously, we were in a room backstage at Universe of Energy.. it looked like a 'set' it was so icky! Old toaster ovens and microwaves, grimey coffee pots... I'm actually surprised they even take tours back there! ... but I still plan on working there. I'm guessing that by the time I'm retired, I will have experienced plenty of magic, and will be ready to share!

 

[teruterubouzu]

I love the night time shots at MK. The lights are so pretty!

That EPCOT backstage tour sounds like such fun -- even the icky parts.

 

[PrincessV]

*They really do wash the 3D glasses! We saw a poor CM sending them through the big ol' machine.

PHEW!!! This is very reassuring... I'd always assumed they got sanitized, but it's nice to have confirmation!

Did some time sitting outside of here, relaxing, eating, people watching:

I always forget that there's outside seating at the bakery!

And I dominated!! (Thanks, V, for the volcano tip)
(Sorry, the picture isn't very good, but Matt was trying to push the camera around so I couldn't document his defeat!!)

You did it!!! (sorry Matt. )

 

[lovethecastle]

Hey Susie,
You & Matt are so cute! Love the trip report. All the food pictures look great!
Glad you were able to get the pics back from the deleted card.
ps-the 1st pic in your ws guess the country was Norway. can't remember the rest.

 

[Sooze]

I love the night time shots at MK. The lights are so pretty!

That EPCOT backstage tour sounds like such fun -- even the icky parts.

Thanks! I wish I had a 'real' camera instead of a point-and-shoot. Those pictures would've been 10 times better! Someday...

I loved the tour.. hoping to do more!

PHEW!!! This is very reassuring... I'd always assumed they got sanitized, but it's nice to have confirmation!


I always forget that there's outside seating at the bakery!


You did it!!! (sorry Matt. )

I felt the same way.. it's good to know they clean them!!

The seating outside the bakery is very minimal, though. We were hoping to sit on a bench along Main Street, but soon realized there were none! Maybe they took them out for parade crowds, or maybe they never had 'em!

Shhhhh... I'll never tell Matt the secret! (Although I think he knows one himself and won't share with me, either!)

Hey Susie,
You & Matt are so cute! Love the trip report. All the food pictures look great!
Glad you were able to get the pics back from the deleted card.
ps-the 1st pic in your ws guess the country was Norway. can't remember the rest.

I was so glad the pictures were recovered... TimandLesley saved my life!

 

[over]

really looking forward to more! im usually just a lurker but this report really made my day!

 

[Sooze]

really looking forward to more! im usually just a lurker but this report really made my day!

And that comment really made MY day!!

Glad you came out of lurkdom! I'm probably going to finish this up this week so I can start on a new trippie. In the meantime, if you're interested... If you click on the links in my signature (the trips that are underlined), you can read my old TRs!!

Have fun!!

 

[Sooze]

Has anyone else noticed that I've been on page 5 FOREVER?!?! This is the longest page in DIS history!!

 

[Sooze]

We were up bright and early for our last day in WDW. They were having EMH at Epcot, so we decided to take advantage of short waits, and, hopefully, most of the runners being GONE!

We ate breakfast at the Artist's Palatte at SSR. I left a drawing on one of the little easels located throughout the seating area:

We drove over to BWV again to park, then walked into our favorite 'secret' entrance to WS. The weather was eerie... low clouds, misty... well, here.. look for yourself!

Notice anything missing?

Spaceship Earth!! It was gone... just hiding out in the clouds!

We went right on through the fog and meandered over to Test Track. There was NO ONE there. Seriously, we walked right into an empty queue!

Here is Matt enjoying the freedom:

And here we are enjoying our own car:

We, well, I took a quick flight to Mars:

On our Undiscovered FW tour, we learned that when they began offering two sides to this ride (green and orange) that they actually DECREASED the intensity of the orange, even after offering the wimpy green. I KNEW it wasn't as intense as when I first rode it!!! And Matt still gets woogedy, even though orange really isn't as bad as it used to be... daggone law suits...

Next stop, a quick bathroom break:

What SOOZE?!?! What are you doing taking a picture of the inside of your bathroom stall?! Well, it just so happened that this bathroom was in Innoventions, it was completely empty (Kinda like the rest of Future World that morning), and while I was doing my deed, all I could hear was the wonderful music that they play in the FW area... just me, my thoughts, my stall, and my FW music... sounds heavenly to me! So, I took a picture of it, so I could remember!

Next stop, Spaceship Earth. Our mission today was to check out the exit exhibits. We usually blow past this, but knew that this hi-tech kind of stuff was exactly what our son would LOVE! So after we took deep breaths of burning Rome, found our two hidden-Mickeys, and created our own future:

(don't ask about the funky thing sticking out of my head.. I have NO idea!)

... we played with the Siemens stuff afterward. Sorry, no pictures, but we did have a great time playing with the stuff!! Tyson is going to love it, so we got excited thinking about being able to bring him here... soon!!

It was getting close to lunch and I was dying for Chinese. Matt can't do that stuff, so we split up around WS. He went right to get fish and chips, I went left for some sweet and sour chicken. We planned on meeting at the American Pavillion. I had to wait entirely too long for my food! No fault of the CMs, just the large, unDisneyeducated family in front of me who obviously didn't decided what they all wanted before stepping up to the cashier...

By the time I hiked it over to America, Matt was waiting at a table for me, with NO FOOD! Guess the fish and chips place didn't open for an early lunch. He settled on a good ol' American burger. Here's my entree:

For the rest of the afternoon, we did what Matt and Susie do best...
LISTEN TO VOICES OF LIBERTY!! Over and over and over!!!

We approached the lead lady the first time we saw them this weekend and asked if they would have the personnel to do "Golden Dream". I guess it takes a LARGE ensemble to pull this piece off. She said she didn't think so, so we figured we'd go YET AGAIN without hearing this piece live.

We were surprised, though, to see a HUGE group today. We were counting the sopranos and Matt said, "They have THREE today... they are SO doing Golden Dream!!" So we anxioulsy waited... through four sets.. and ... No Golden Dream. It is an AMAZING song!
VOICES of LIBERTY-GOLDEN DREAM

And with that... we were done. Time to make the long trek back to the car... The good part about leaving was that we really were missing the kids. We were also getting very excited about our upcoming trip during Spring Break.

Thanks so much for hangin' out for this extended Live report!

Sure hope to see you on my newest TR... coming soon!!

 

[lovethecastle]

That was a really great tr. glad you had such a wonderful time.
So your husband won't ride the orange side of mission space?
My 12 yr son won't ride either because of the news stories about some kids dying after getting off the ride. He remembers that every time my husband tries to get him to go with him. Personally I like the green side.
Take Care

 

[Sooze]

That was a really great tr. glad you had such a wonderful time.
So your husband won't ride the orange side of mission space?
My 12 yr son won't ride either because of the news stories about some kids dying after getting off the ride. He remembers that every time my husband tries to get him to go with him. Personally I like the green side.
Take Care

Thanks for staying with me for the long haul!

Matt WILL ride the orange side, but usually only once per trip. It just throws him off a bit. DS, who is 8, LOVES it and will ride it (orange side!) over and over with me! It really isn't as intense as it was when it first opened... probably due to above-mentioned incidents!!

Hope to see you on my TR.. I'll be posting a link soon!

 

[Sooze]

Please visit my NEW PTR!! It's for our upcoming Spring Break Trip.

Enjoy!!

Band Geeks Takin' Over the World PTR by Sooze